Field Rotation – Phase IV (Drilling)

I finished discing the evening before having to leave for a bull sale. The long range forecast was calling for precipitation in five days…three days at the sale would leave me two days to get the wheat drilled before the rain/snow began to fall…if the meteorologist was correct.

Tractor, Roterra, Drill, Cultipacker

Since I was planting wheat, an annual and not alfalfa or pasture, I did not run a box scraper or land plane following discing. Instead, I hooked up a roterra, followed by the drill, followed by the cultipacker.

The roterra is PTO driven and further breaks up the remaining sod clods and then gently packs the soil in front of the drill. The drill then lays the seed in a small furrow, 2″ deep for red wheat in our soil. The cultipacker then follows the drill and packs the soil on top of the seed.

I finished drilling at 6 pm…the snow began to fall at 6:32 pm…perfect timing 🙂

As I mentioned earlier, I planted a beardless winter red wheat. However, I am growing it as a forage, not for the grain. I will cut it for hay next June, to feed to cattle and horses next winter. Since I am planning on cutting it for hay, I chose the beardless variety to increase palatability.

The graphic above depicts the difference between “bearded” (left) and “beardless” (right) wheat. Being free from the tassels makes the hay a highly desirable forage by both horses and cattle…roughage plus energy…a great hay to feed in the winter.

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